Google’s Sergey Brin Wants Employees To Come Back To The Office

If there is one thing that the pandemic taught us—it is that we can work from home and still be productive. In fact, many people have reported anecdotally that working from home allows them to accomplish more than going into the office. But not everyone feels that way. Google co-founder Sergey Brin thinks that maybe working in the office is better for productivity.

A report from The New York Times cites an internal memo sent by Brin to employees where the Google co-founder called on employees to come back to the office. At the moment, Google’s policy requires employees to work in the office at least three days a week. The rest can be spent working remotely.

However, according to the memo, Brin believes that working from the office is better for productivity. He calls on employees to come back to the office “at least every weekday”, claiming that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity”. That being said, employees might ignore Brin’s call since it does not officially change Google’s return-to-office policy.

Brin was also quoted as saying, “A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by. This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else.”

To his credit, Brin also warned against employees working more than 60 hours a week. He warned that it could lead to burnout.

Return to office

During the pandemic, many companies both willingly and reluctantly embraced the remote work culture. This is because there was really no other choice. Some companies quickly discovered that employees were more productive when working from home. Others were more than happy to reverse those policies once the pandemic subsided.

So far, there have been several major companies that have required employees to return to the office. This includes Amazon, who says that corporate employees must return to the office five days a week. Elon Musk, when he took over Twitter, also banned remote work.

We’re not sure if Brin’s comments could spur Google to make changes to its return-to-office policy, so maybe Google employees should prepare themselves for a potential change.